Value of a house in Surat Thani

[Trevor1809]

It is a long time since I was aware of the value of houses in Thailand. Plus since then the UK pound has decreased in value upsetting the comparison base.

The house opposite where my wife is renting in Surat Thani is coming up for sale and she says it is cheap at 5 million baht. That doesn't sound cheap to me but then I am thinking of it in UK pounds. It s a large 3 or 4 bed house. Has been extended apperantly and has a double the size plot to the other houses around. What is a good ball park figure for the value?

[Peterw42]

In the absence of any real data its often very hard to determine the realistic value of any property in Thailand. What properties list for and what properties sell for is often very different. You really need to do your own research, past sales in the area. Dont rely on what properties are listed for.

Sometimes you can do a quick rental return calculation to determine a value. If the possible rental return is somewhere around 3-5%, that would indicate the price is maybe realistic, 1% return and the property is overvalued, 10% return and its a bargain.

[cornishcarlos]

In general, I think most people over value their properties when trying to sell in Thailand... This goes for land particularly.

What area of Suratthani are you talking about ?? City center or outside ?

The local economy is taking a beating at the moment, with palm prices down to 3 baht/kilo and rubber also low. This effects everyone, not just the plantation owners.

If you are a shark, it's a great time to buy, as there are a lot of people struggling, especially teachers it would seem ?

 

[BigSkip]

2 houses in my village, on my street are for sale, 7mil & 8 mil. All are double lots or bigger, mine the biggest at almost 3 lots. mine has all new 3 wire electric & living room extension. plus a 2 separate buildings, one a man cave, and 2 car garage. I paid 3.75mil and have invested under 1 mil. with all the upgrades.... like the other poster stated, what people want and what they are worth are a big distance in-between.........

[robertson468]

My experience is Thais tend to over price their houses for sale, with the expectation of being bargained down.  I think that the Banks are also getting a little concerned at the high rate of non-performing mortgages, so Thais might struggle a little to get a mortgage, on the other hand, if you are able to flash the cash you should be in a good position to buy at a reduced rate.

[manchega]

in the village or gated community ( in which I am the only gay) loads of houses have been for sale for a long time, now looking pretty run down these town houses.

what does it mean, not worth as much as the owners think? or wrong area?

even bank houses are overpriced

[from the home of CC]

9 minutes ago, manchega said:

in the village or gated community ( in which I am the only gay) loads of houses have been for sale for a long time, now looking pretty run down these town houses.

what does it mean, not worth as much as the owners think? or wrong area?

even bank houses are overpriced

what does you being gay have to do with it?

[1FinickyOne]

I have been looking for a while and find that the market is out of touch with reality... so many many homes for sale and very few buyers and prices rising... I would pay only what it is worth to you and consider that you may never be able to sell it... 

[BTB1977]

Of course it is cheap. She is paying nothing . Very cheap for her and she gets a house for no money. 

[LukKrueng]

the right price of a property is the price the buyer is willing to pay and the seller is willing to sell for.

as for value estimation you can do the following:

1. With a copy of the chanot go to the local land department offices and ask what is their valuation for transfer fee&taxes. Their valuation will usually (but not always) be 10-15% lower than the market value

2. Get a professional real estate valuation (that will cost a few thousand thb). If you don't know where to get one you can ask your bank (you can say you want to get a mortgage on the property after you buy it). The bank will send someone (you still have to pay for it) and the bank will actually give a loan according to this valuation, so this should give you an idea of the market value.

other than that, look for other properties for sale or recently sold in the area and check their prices. If the house you want has not even gone on the market yet you won't have much bargaining power unless the owner is in need for cash urgently. Once a house has been on the maker for a while it might be easier to bargain the price down, unless the seller is not in a rush to sell. There is no point in comparing local market prices and situation with overseas markets.

[GreasyFingers]

1 hour ago, kenk24 said:

I have been looking for a while and find that the market is out of touch with reality... so many many homes for sale and very few buyers and prices rising... I would pay only what it is worth to you and consider that you may never be able to sell it... 

Very good advice, especially for regional Thailand.

[aircooledflat4]

15 hours ago, Trevor1809 said:

The house opposite where my wife is renting

How much is she paying in rent?  That’ll help you ascertain the values in the area, 

[ExpatOilWorker]

Below are 46 single house that Kasikorn bank have on foreclosure in Surat Thani. Check if you can find something similar in size and location to the house you are looking at.

 

http://propertyforsale.kasikornbank.com/searchProperty.aspx?index=3#Property

 

NB: No sure if the Surat Thani search can be copy/pasted in the link. If not, select Main Index, single house and then the province.

[khunPer]

17 hours ago, Trevor1809 said:

What is a good ball park figure for the value?

You wife probably has a better idea of the house values in Surat Thani than us other posters in this forum, as you don't supply enough information for a fair valuation; like

Location (where in Surat Thani Province?)

Size of land plot?

Approximate house size in square meters (or talang wah?) for a 3-4 bed house?

Age of house and presumed condition?

 

5 million baht might be cheap, and 5 million baht might be too much; however house-and-land prices can be relative high in that part of Thailand. A brief idea can be to look into a local K-bank branch and snap their brochure of house for sale by the bank, and also check local real estate agent. Furthermore find out what similar size houses in the area has been sold for – which might be more difficult – as there can be a (huge) difference between asking price and actual sales price.

?

PS: FYI, I'm living in Surat Thani province.

[catman20]

what ever someones asking half it as a starting point.

[HHTel]

A house anywhere is worth as much as someone is willing to pay.

 

Comparing the prices with the UK is pointless.  My daughter has just bought a one bedroom flat for 200K pounds in the UK.  That's close to 8 million baht!

[Trevor1809]

1 hour ago, HHTel said:

Comparing the prices with the UK is pointless. 

I wasn't comparing the price to the UK, I just think in pounds. The last time I was aware of house prices in Thailand it was in the 60 to 70  baht to the pound era. Now I was converting baht to pounds at 43. Just trying to ascertain whether house prices had really gone up that much or how much was down to the pound crashing.

[Delight]

 if you are thinking of buying Baht -the attached chart suggests that you should buy now. They must know the Brexit outcome.

 

Based on my general observations condos are not selling-however-

houses,particularly good quality houses  already set up in companies,  are.

Simple transaction.

Beaware that if in the future you sell in Thai Baht it is unlikely that you will get the money out of Thailand.

The bank manager will cry 'Money Laundering' and you will be screwed

 

 

[William C F Pierce]

Unfortunately, prices go from one extreme to another one size house that goes for 2m Baht could somewhere else be priced at 50m Baht. This difference in quality on different aspects of a building affect the price. (Such as cheap slatted windows with wind up handles. What is the interior like? Does it have a modern Western Kitchen?). It would be wise to research every Real Estate agent on the internet covering your area and go and look at similar properties to compare prices. In other words, do your homework.

[Audragon]

I'm planning to move to Chiang Mai in November and I just wanted to add a couple of comments to the discussion. I plan to rent initially and assuming all is well, I plan to buy after a couple of years with my Thai partner. I agree with much of the advice above, especially LukKrueng and khunPer.  

As background, I have been looking at Thai house prices for several years. I currently have 14 local CM real estate agents and 1 bank bookmarked, and I research every day. I compare prices, locations, house styles,  projects, sales, etc. and even compare the same houses listed on different websites. It's actually quite enjoyable and very informative. I usually inspect 4-5 house on each visit from Australia, just to stay informed.

Many times I find house prices the same across different agents, but I believe I get a better deal (service, local knowledge, a range of prices) with Thai agents rather than western agents. I have never found language an issue, and in most cases, I have found Thai agents more "respectful" and able to talk with the owner more easily.

My general observation over the past 5 years is that Thai houses are usually 30% overpriced on agent websites and I wouldn't consider an offer for more than that. (That is the asking price LESS 30%.) Recently I have seen many house prices fall significantly in CM.

Even in Australia, my Thai friends seem to use their word-of-mouth network when buying property, and friends just recently flew to Thailand and bought land and a house in the north following a recommendation. However, this can also be a trap for farang, as friends/family try and help friends/family, even if the property is not perfect.

So Trevor, do your homework thoroughly.

 

[BritManToo]

On 7/30/2018 at 12:08 AM, Trevor1809 said:

It s a large 3 or 4 bed house. Has been extended apperantly and has a double the size plot to the other houses around.

Why do you need a big house, or a big plot?

Unless you have children 2 bedrooms is big enough.

Unless you like gardening, enough room to walk around the house is big enough.

 

As for price, plenty of new houses for sale around 2Mbht, or houses for rent at 6-8kbht/month.